Break Up With Her
A Call For BIPOC Christians To Leave White Evangelical Church Behind
I saw this post from my dear friend Drew Brown and it reminded me of something I have been working out for a while. Drew’s call to defund the white evangelical church is beyond timely.
You may be wondering, how do we achieve that Rose-Ingrid?
It’s simple. Mass exodus.
For too long the WEC has been allowed to exist, propagating whiteness, homophobia, misogyny, capitalism and colonialism. For too long many of us have stayed in these churches and organisations, allowing ourselves to be burdened and abused with very little to show for it.
Apologising for our pastors, friends, and leaders. Making excuses for their ignorance, racism, homophobia, sexism and rationalising their abuse as love. At a certain point, we must take an honest look at the WEC and see it for what it is. We must love ourselves enough to say “enough.” It is time the remaining folks who are still embedded in these institutions made their way out the door.
It is time for some of y’all to listen to that whisper in your heart that you’ve been avoiding for too long. It’s time for you to say the things you’ve been holding back for fear of being seen as angry or divisive. It’s time for you to divest from organisations, communities, relationships and people who do not see you as equal or valuable beyond what you can give them.
The time for impassioned pleas is gone. We’ve been pleading.
The time for “talks over coffee” is gone. The coffee’s gone cold and stale.
The time for patience is gone. We’ve been waiting.
Stop tithing.
Unfriend. Block. Unfollow.
Break up with them. Hell. Divorce them.
If anything, this season is exposing the truth among us. Some people aren’t ever gonna be for you. Love yourself enough to go. The White Evangelical Church has long shown us the fruit of their labour and beliefs. It is time for Black, Indigenous and People of Colour in these institutions to believe them.
Walk away. Shake the dust from your feet. Let the truth set you free.
Our presence in these spaces allows them to continue in their complacency and sin. They don’t need to change because we continue to show up despite our cries for change and their coffers remain full.
What would happen if BIPOC folks and their allies left en masse? What would happen if we removed ourselves from their pews, prayer ministries, worship teams, boards, luncheons, BBQs? What would the landscape of our communities be like if we stopped spending our money in these places and invested in local grassroots work that our neighbours are diligently leading? What if instead of exporting whitemalegod to the developing world, we did the work of dismantling capitalism and foreign policy that creates poverty and unrest in many of these countries?
Maybe, just maybe our world would be better. Maybe, we would all be healthier. Maybe our queer siblings, children, and friends would stop killing themselves because they were told that god hates them. Maybe we would learn about the divine from the wisdom of our ancestors without guilt or shame. Maybe, we would all learn to love our whole selves without restraint.
Maybe.
I believe that there is hope for our collective future. But it cannot be as long as we continue to support institutions that are harming us all. The systems, economy, and politics of white evangelicalism are major obstacles to a more just and equitable world.
This is not an indictment of faith or even the Palestinian Jew that Christians believe to be the messiah. If anything this is a call back to that faith. I am not asking anyone to abandon faith, but to hold themselves and those around them to a higher standard.
If Jesus came for the poor, destitute, sick, and hopeless. If Jesus demonstrated a commitment to justice, liberation, and redemption, why do so many of these churches carry none of that spirit? Maybe it’s because these places of worship were built in honour of power, whiteness, maleness and ego rather than for the least among us.
We can and must walk away from the God of white supremacy and greed that reigns in churches all over the west. We are being slaughtered from within Sunday after Sunday. And it is high time we said enough and took ourselves elsewhere.
We are powerful.
We are beautiful.
We are divine.
And we deserve better than the scraps and disrespect that we have been fed since most (not all s/o to Ethiopia) of our ancestors were forced to hear about the white man’s god through war, coercion and plantations— Literally and spiritually.
It’s time to tell these leaders who won’t declare the value of your life from their pulpits that they aren’t welcome on our shores. Stay out of our villages, stay off of our islands, stay out of our hoods. Tell them that their gospel is nothing but noise to those who watch them profit off the rape and murder of our land without losing a wink of sleep.
It is time to stop making excuses for your friends and call them what they are abusers. The worst kind of enemy — one who thinks himself a friend. Claiming to be measured, God-fearing, and balanced. Apolitical even. Taking their rational truck and running you over. Over and over and over and over again.
The church was never a building to begin with. And pastors were never intended to be our masters, fathers or bullies.
Quit em.
No, you will not change them.
You will not singlehandedly transform them from the inside.
If you truly care for change, you will leave. May they feel the loss of your presence, wisdom, labour, joy, patience, kindness, and coins. May they see what their pews, BBQs, luncheons and prayer meetings are like without you. May they mourn their loss, see their sin and repent to the Creator for worshipping themselves.
Maybe there will be hope for them then. In any case, you are not God and salvation does not depend on you. Lay down the heavy yoke of saviourism and walk away.
